ject has been ably assisted by his
devoted wife, who has been ever ready to render him
all assistance by her counsel and presence. She is a
refined, intelligent lady, and holds the interests of
her husband and family dear to her heart. Both husband
and wife are consistent members of the United Brethren
Church. He is at present President of the Board of
Trustees of the Otterbein Chapel, of Rock Bluff
Precinct. He was one of the organizers of the school
district in which he lives, and has been for a long
time connected with its Board of Directors. He is
Republican in politics. In the fall of 1887 he was a
candidate for the office of County Commissioner, but
was defeated by Louis Foltz, the present incumbent. He
has served as Judge of Election in his precinct, and
was Constable for two years. Himself and wife take an
active part in the social life of the precinct and are
classed among the representative families of the
county. They have had their share of the troubles and
cares incident to pioneer life, and are now enjoying
the fruits of their industry and enterprise. Mr. Young
is one of the organizers and a Director of the Nehawka
Bank, and is one of the Trustees of the Nehawka United
Brethren Church. A view of his beautiful residence,
with its surroundings is given in this connection.

ALVIN
G. TABER occupies an honorable place among the
pioneers who were active in opening up the
agricultural resources of Centre Precinct, and he is
now one of its prominent and successful farmers. His
farm of 200 acres, 120 of which is on section 22, and
the remaining eighty acres on section 23, is
considered one of the best kept farms in Cass County,
and is admirably adapted to raising stock, to which he
devotes it principally. He has a beautiful home on
section 22; the commodious, substantial residence, of
a pleasing architectural design, is said to be one of
the finest in all Cass County. It is nicely finished
on the inside, to correspond with its external
appearance, and is well and tastefully furnished.
Mr. Taber was born in Saratoga
County, N. Y., 1831. Durphy Taber, his father. was
also a native of New York, born in 1797, and spent his
entire life in Saratoga County. He was a shoemaker by
trade, and also a tanner and currier, being quite an
extensive business man. He married Miss Sally Woodard,
and to them were born six children, all of whom lived
to maturity, their names being, Eliza, Susan, Orris
(who lives next door north of our subject's
residence), Calvin, Margaret, Laura and Melinda. The
father died in 1835, while yet in the prime of life,
being only forty-four years of age, in the midst of a
career of usefulness, and his death was regarded as a
severe blow to the industrial and financial interests
of his town. His widow survived him until 1864, dying
in the home of our subject, at the ripe age of
seventy-eight years. Peleg Taber, the grandfather of
our subject, was a native of Rhode Island, and the
next spring after his marriage he went to Saratoga
County, N. Y., which was then mostly covered by the
primeval forest, and there he built up a home for
himself and family, with pioneer labor, drawing the
logs for the erection of a cabin without the help of a
team. He eliminated a good farm from the forest depths
during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and
there spent the remainder of his life. He was twice
married and reared a large family of children. He was
a Quaker, or Friend, in his religious belief.
Our subject lived in his native
county until he was twenty-four years old, receiving
in the meantime the benefit of an education at the
common schools. At the age mentioned he went to Stark
County, Ill., and remained there several years,
prosperously engaged in farming. In 1865 he visited
Nebraska for the purpose of taking up a homestead
claim on eighty acres of land that forms a part of his
present farm. He erected a small house, and the same
fall returned to Illinois and spent the winter,
closing up his affairs there preparatory to the
removal to this State. In the spring of 1866 he came
here with his family to locate permanently, arriving
here on the 29th day of May, having driven all the way
from Stark County, Ill., a distance of 420 miles. He
still has the team with which he drove through, a bay
team that was at that time four years old. He thinks a
great deal of them, and they are now having the best
of care,

946

CASS COUNTY.

having good shelter even in mild
weather, and from one of them he has reared nine
colts, or which he has three left. With characteristic
energy, Mr. Taber immediately set to work to improve
his land, planting a grove, also 200 good fruit trees,
besides a variety of small fruits, put out one and
one-half miles of hedge, and put the land under good
tillage. In a few years he had his first 80-acre tract
under good improvements, and all under cultivation but
seventeen acres, and that is in tame grass. As he
became more prosperous he bought another eighty,
improved that, and has since added forty acres more to
his land, making it a fine farm in every respect. He
has erected ample and commodious farm buildings; one
fine barn is 36x50, with 16-feet posts, and a stone
basement. He has a large granary, 18x32x16 feet, with
16-feet posts, and large double cribs; also has a hog
house, 20x30x12 feet, to protect his hogs, as he
carefully cares for all of his animals. In 1887 he
erected his fine residence, with a frontage of
fifty-six feet, twenty-six feet in depth; and two
stories in height, with an L in the rear. Mr. Taber
has been exceedingly successful in raising stock. He
has a fine herd of fifty-three head of cattle, mainly
Shorthorns of a high grade. He has a number of hogs,
of a mixed breed of Poland-China and Berkshire. He
devotes most of his time, however, to horse breeding,
and has several fine roadsters, besides ten
work-horses of good grades, which he keeps busily
employed on his farm.
Mr. Taber and Miss Sarah Harris we
united in marriage in Saratoga County, N. Y., April
26, 1855 and to them have been born six children, all
of whom are living, and of them the following is
recorded: Sophronia, born June 24, 1856, is now Mrs.
George Michael, of Webster County, Neb.; Lydia Malvina
is Mrs. Orin Pitney; Wyan married Miss Susan
Fairfield, and they have one child, George, and reside
in Cheyenne County, Neb.; Eliza is now Mrs. Zade;
Orin, William, at home. All of the daughters live in
Webster County, this State. Mrs. Michael has three
children -- Sarah, Laura and Milton; Mrs. Pitney has
two children -- Clyde and Floyd; Mrs. Zade has three
children -- Clara, Sarah and Ertle.
Mrs. Taber was born Feb. 6, 1833, in
Warren County, N. Y. Her father, William Harris, was a
physician and surgeon of Athol, that county, where he
always lived, with the exception of two year's that he
spent in Illinois. He died in 1883, aged seventy-two
years. His wife, whose maiden name was Sophronia
Flanders, survived him until 1885, when she, too,
passed to the great beyond, at the age of seventy
years. They were prominent members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church.
Mr. Taber is a man of move than
average capacity and decision of character, and it is
to such men that Cass County is indebted for her rapid
progress during the last two decades to a position of
prominence among her sister counties. Our subject may
well be proud of the part he has taken in developing
her resources, as well as of the fact that, by his own
exertions, he has placed himself in the front rank
among her successful farmers. His fellow townspeople
regard film with feelings of the highest respect and
esteem, as he is frank and warm-hearted, is a model of
honest integrity, and is the soul of honor. As a good
citizen should, he is interested in political affairs
of the Country, and is sincerely convinced that the
principles promulgated by the Republican party are the
safest in dealing with public interests.
A view of Mr. Taber's fine
residence, with its surroundings, is given on another
page.

LIC
CHALKER COLEMAN, an honored citizen, and an
enterprising lumber and coal merchant of Greenwood,
was born in Miller Township, Knox Co., Ohio, on the
23d of April, 1843. His first recollections are of
Ohio, where he entered the public schools when only
four years of age; when he was seven years old he went
with his parents to Iowa, where he lived with them and
attended school until he was nineteen years old. In
1862 he joined his parents, who had preceded him two
years, in Nebraska. In the autumn of 1861 he enlisted
in Company F, 17th Iowa Infantry, to take part in the
Civil War, which had just begun at that time. The
regiment went into camp at Keokuk, from which city
they went to Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Mo. In 1862
they started down the Missis-